Four of Harry Partch's earliest compositions, works he later grouped together as The Wayard, comprise the first half of this collection. The four pieces: U.S. Highball, San Francisco, The Letter and Barstow were written between 1941 and 1943 after Partch received a Guggenheim Fellowship. This after he'd spent much of the previous 10 years hoboing around the country, picking up odd jobs as he could get them throughout the depression. It's no wonder then that the topics of these pieces have much, if not everything, to do with his experiences during this period. These are classic Partch, combining social commentary and humor to create odd oratorios (the texts of these pieces are included in the accompanying booklet) that are spoken as much as they are sung and done so with that quintessential vocal style that just smacks of the 50's. I think that's what makes these recordings sound all that much more interesting and odd. You expect the voices you hear to be pitching Listerine or a Chevy Corvair, not kicking it with an iconoclast hobo composer. The final composition here, And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma, is a radical contrast to these earlier pieces and makes for a nice juxtaposition for this collection. Completed in 1966, it's one of the few pieces Partch composed that is strictly instrumental and completely lacking any kind of "program". Further, it utilizes the entire cache of the now fully realized Partch orchestra of instruments.
Love him or... don't love him ("hate him" seems a little extreme for a man as benign as Harry Partch), he had to have been the greatest idealist in the history of Western music -- not to mention the greatest iconoclast. It's not enough to disassemble the chromatic scale and build an entirely new harmonic theory around a division of some 43 tones to the octave or assemble an entire orchestra of insanely gorgeous hand built instruments, but he also insisted on a corporeal execution of almost all his works. The Bewitched was the first large scale composition in which the musicians were also expected to sing and dance as they played. Not something that most performers or audiences would balk at today, but this was 1957, not 1967. Even today his music sounds completely unreal and haunting. Bewitched begins with an 18 minute prologue, an aural genesis of his music. It begins with just the rumblings of the marimba eroica, the two note bass marimba, which are almost inaudible unless you have some serious subwoofer action. One by one the entire cast of the Partch orchestra chimes in on different melodic themes, and building in counterpoint with one another at each turn. Musically it's an extremely strong composition, with great thematic development, beautiful and haunting melodies (as wonderful as any in his other compositions). One of the greatest aspects of The Bewitched however is Partch's treatment of the human voice. Whether done intentionally to stress the "primitive" aspirations of his music, or for lack of a worthy libretto, all the vocals are wordless chanting and singing. I know a lot of people can't seem to get into Partch's works (like "Revelation In A Courthouse Park" and "Barsto") because they find the lyrics corny. Those who can't get into his music because of this might want to give Partch a second chance with The Bewitched. The voice of the performer playing The Witch, the lead role in The Bewitched, sounds an awful lot like Yma Sumac. In fact the whole compositions sounds a lot like a more academic Martin Denny scoring an episode of Star Trek (Shatner, not Stewart for all you young-uns) -- what with all the marimba-like instruments. And yet in sections which feature clarinet, piccolo and cello Partch's themes begin to sound surprisingly pastoral, like his antithetical contemporary Copland. Which is not to make Partch look like some stuffed shirt. I don't think anyone would confuse his music for the offspring of a tenured faculty at some ivy league school. One need look no further than the titles for each scene to see that Partch's sense of humor wouldn't be caught dead in academia. For instance, scene five is titled "Visions Fill the Eyes of a Defeated Basketball Team in the Shower Room", or scene ten: "The Cogniscenti Are Plunged into a Demonic Descent While at Cocktails". Like the other discs in this Partch reissue series this one comes with a nice fat booklet with historical and biographical notes, photos and detailed descriptions of each scene in the performance (which, by the way, is the original 1957 monaural recording). Highly recommended!
Wow! After 40 years-and-counting, Dolly Parton releases her very first all-bluegrass recording. For this she chose some of the best bluegrass musicians in the world, including Sam Bush (founder of New Grass Revival and, according to No Depression magazine, "generally considered one of the top three bluegrass mandolin players in the world"), dobro player Jerry Douglas ("acknowledged to be the best in the world"), fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Bryan Sutton and banjoist Jim Mills (both ex-Ricky Skaggs band), along with the angelvoiced Alison Krauss and Patty Loveless as backup singers. Alternately growling, yowling, and crooning her own originals and covers of Hazel Dickens, Blackfoot, Lester Flatt, the Louvin Brothers, and Johnny Cash, this is Dolly at her best -- without slick, deadening prodcution values that's cost many a country album its vitality and life. If you thought Alison Krauss' last record was a little too watered-down-commercial and you already have all the Freakwater albums, then this record is for you.
Excellent dancehall mix of Dawn Penn's sorrowful "No, No, No (You Don't Love Me)" featuring a beefier beat and interjections from U-"Wake The Town And Tell The People"-Roy.
Fuckin' A! All the the Vanguard recordings of Perrey & Kingsley finally available in one reasonably priced 2 disc set. Yes, I said "2 disc set". "The In Sound From Way Out", "Spotlight On Moog", plus Jean Jaques Perrey's solo albums "The Amazing New Pop Electronic Sound Of..." and "Moog Indigo" are all included here. Perrey & Kingsley, for those unfamiliar with their work, were probably the first electronic composers to work in the popular realm, releasing "The In Sound From Way Out" in 1966. Taking the ground breaking developments in tape and electronic music pioneered by Otto Leuning and Vladimir Ussachevsky and creating outrageoous arrangements of popular standards of the day a la Martin Denny and Esquivel, Perrey and Kingsley made some "easy listening" music that was anything but easy to listen to. Incredibly frenetic rhythms composed of multi-tracked tape loops of sound effects and recorded noise were the back drop to high paced electronic renditions of all the popular hits of the day using the most advanced synthesizers available. Everyone from Stereolab to Negativland claims a huge debt to the inspiration of these mad scientists of electronic pop. Also included are some nice biographical liner notes -- 7 pages worth -- by The Wire contributor Richard Henderson. Oh yeah, and there's also a third disc of Fat Boy Slim and Eurotrash remixes which you can promptly throw away when you get your copy. In its place you could fit a copy of Jean Jacques Perrey's "Good Moog" which was just re-issued as well and retails for 17.98.
Why the Beasties did not give credit to P&K (for the album title) is beyond me. Give credit, it's tribute. No credit, you're lame. A really amazing collection of early experimentation with tape loops and cut n paste frivolity, entertaining to an extreme.
Nice vinyl only reissue of Lee Perry's 1973 Blackboard Jungle Dub. 12 cuts of stripped down dub, with some fine screams and other "non-musical" noises thrown in to boot. Quite similar to "Kung Fu Meets The Dragon." Recorded at the Black Ark by Scratch and mixed by King Tubby at King Tubby's. Features Aston & Carlton Barrett, Winston Wright, Gladstone Anderson, Skully and more.
23 tracks, 9 previously unreleased, highlighting Perry's more esoteric production efforts taken from the beginning of his career as an independant producer in 1969 on up to 1975. This is really quite an exceptional collection of recordings and the unreleased
Classic Lee Perry dub madness from 1975. This is the most consistantly selling reggae/dub album we stock, and for good reason - on these tracks Lee Perry somehow manages to channel the spirit of Bruce Lee expressed in dub. Aside from the contextual intros to let you know who you're up against, there's some kick ass dub on this album and a lot of what sounds like Lee Perry with gas pains burping through the session. And if that's not enough, there's an awesome cover drawing of a Bruce Lee cum Lee Perry figure extended in a kung fu kick and surrounded by a dragon. One of the best and essential dub albums to own!
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
Volume one contains the first 50 tracks in the series and recorded in 1969, shortly after Perry left his last employer (producer Joe Gibbs) in order to promote his own work under the flag of Upsetter Productions. Given the year these recordings were made, it should come as no surprise to the dominance of rock-steady and ska tracks on this set.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
Taking tracks from 1970, this set starts off in the apex of Perry's career. From the very first track, a classic - "Kill Them All" - you know you're dealing with a madman/genius. Along with lots of insane instrumentals, including "Toothache" (in which Mr Perry makes use of a seriously damaged and squeeling organ that sounds as if it were found in a rubbish heap), there are some great vocal tracks: the Soulettes doing "Let It Be", Bob Marley's "My Cup" and much more.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
All tracks here are taken from singles released in 1971. As well as Bob Marley's haunting and strange "Mr. Brown" about a possessed and evil crow, with it's rumbling fuzzy organ filling out the bottom, there are a number of other tracks that Perry produced of Marley, as well as some beautiful vocals from Hortence Ellis and much more.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records,
The other day a mail order customer called up and ordered Finnish post-rockers Circle's tUMULt release "Andexelt", and also "Ciudad de Brahman" by Argentinian stoner-rock outfit Natas. I immediately suggested that he also get a copy of this debut cd by
Until the boys get around to serving us another new full length, Absolutely Kosher has thankfully reissued this beautiful ep of theirs which was originally issued two years ago. Pinback, for those unfamiliar, is a duo featuring Rob Crow of Heavy Vegetable / Thingy / Optiganally Yours and Zack from Three Mile Pilot. The two are consummate performers and songwriters, the type of people who just ooze music all the time. I can remember when Rob Crow did a solo in-store here several years back. He was playing a guitar through a small battery powered amp (designed to look like a miniature Marshall amp.) He was rocking out -- had everyone in the entire store completely absorbed -- and as he was reaching the very end of the crescendo of the song he was playing, his battery powered amp fell off the used LP bin it was resting on, struck the floor and scattered batteries everywhere. Rob Crow apologetically got down on his hands and knees to retrieve the batteries. After fumbling around for a minute to get them back in and the case snapped tight, Rob immediately went back into his song to finish the last 2 seconds of the feedback cadence he had left to play. The playfullness, sincerity, and deadpan humour are evident in the music Rob and Zack write as a team. They sound like a pair that has been playing together all their lives. The type of guys who had a blast coming up with tricky rounds to sing just for the fuck of it. As Pinback, they have an innate ability to write absolutely infectious pop songs, with lilting melodies, often counterpointed with one another in effortless ways -- never sounding contrived. On top of it all, the two record all their music themselves in Zack's bedroom, which you'd never believe listening to their records. Whenever we play this in the store someone invariably purchases a copy (this goes for either of their full lengths as well.)
Heirs to the indierock throne? We certainly think there's an argument in support of it. Once again Zac and Rob don't disappoint on Summer In Abbadon, their first major-independent label release. They continue to efforlessly write songs that can take the best elements of say, Modest Mouse at their zenith -- we're talking catchy hooks -- but with a finer tuned sense of lyricism, a smoother rhythmmic flow and, well, some damn fine finger picked melodic bass lines from Zac. As on their previous releases, Zac and Rob write and record all the songs themselves. And while this might be a count against some artists, both the musicianship and recording skills of this pair is beyond reproach. In fact, their years of woodshedding together has turned them into a veritable sonic unit, effortlessly harmonizing with one another like an indiepop equivalent to the Louvin Brothers channeling the teen angst mopeyness of Tears For Fears. It's no wonder the Pinback army grows stronger with every release.
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This is a collection of Son, Bolero Son, Rumba & Guaracha from Ignacio Pineiro and his septet, recorded in 1928 and 1930. Very raw sounding, infectious songs with beautiful, semi-out-of-tune guitar & tres guitar filling out the sound. Accompanying Ignacio Pineiro (bass, conductor) on these recordings are: Alfredito Valdes & Jose Jimenez or Juan De La Cruz & Abelardo Barroso (1st voices, claves - 1930 & 1928 respectively); Bienvenido Leon (2nd voice, maracas); Miguel Angel Portillo or Jose Manuel Incharte (bongos); Eugenio Constantin or Alberto Villalon (guitar); Francisco Gonzalez (tres guitar); Lazaro Herrera (trumpet.)
The criminally underrecognized Pinetop Seven have been plugging away for years, as they watched Lambchop, Whiskeytown, the Old 97s and a handful of their alt-country peers hit it (relatively) big. But with their fourth album, Pinetop Seven's time has finally come. The band takes simple country ballads, stretches and expands them, adding strings and lush textures, bizarre and exotic instrumentation, and create gut wrenching, brutally intimate country epics. The vocals are deep and trembly like the guy singin' 'em might be about to have a breakdown -- Roy Orbison channeled through Jeff Buckley, Thom Yorke, and Chris Isaak. You know how bands like Godspeed and Blackheart Procession reside at the dark murky end of the indie rock spectrum? That's what Pinetop Seven is to the alt-country scene. And in the same say that Godspeed is, at this point, only barely connected to an "indierock" sound, Pinetop are only tangentially "country" by way of their slight twang. What gets us is that it's also perfectly accessible, dark music that in a perfect world would be on adult radio all the time. This is real honest-to-god music that lingers in your brain for a while -- it's about as far from trendy and flash-in-the-pan as you can get. Very accessible, very deep, and very highly recommended.
Note: we also have one of their previous albums, "Rigging the Toplights", which is one of Andee's absolute favorites of all time.
Long available only in variously expensive bootleg editions, the Pixies "Complete" B-sides is now available in legit form and at a reasonable price. 19 non album tracks (including the much treasured UK Surf version of "Wave Of Mutilation") each one annotated by
After the early 90's incarnation as F.U.S.E. making some of the heaviest cybernetic techno stomps to come from Detroit, Richie Hawtin has continued to devolve techno along a trajectory of minimalism. The monochromatic pulsing beats appear more as the afterimage of techno than as some club floorfiller. Brilliant in its paradoxical expansive claustrophobia.
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Pole's first album was released on the Berlin electronica label Kiff SM to immediate critical acclaim. Extending Oval's ability to control chaos, Pole manipulated the granular synthesis that made listening to Chain Reaction records more than just another techno single, within the contexts of dub schizophrenia. Just as Lee 'Scratch' Perry reprocessed tape hiss through EQ and excessive reverb, Pole reprocessed the Chain Reaction sound into dynamic skittering dirty blips and huge dubbed out thundercracks of drum kicks.
Pole's first album has just been released in America in conjunction with his second album, an even more skeletal and more Jamaican sounding variant of the first, through Matador, whose editorial selection in licensing electronica has so far been exemplary!
"Hardcore is a place where upper-middle-class white kids take all the good pan handling spots away from the bums who really need them". So said the irreverent punk rock sage that is Joe Pop-O-Pie in his classic "The Words of Jamal -- The Rainbow Bridge Version". Along with the Butthole Surfers, the Pop-O-Pies were the perfect antidote for punks who were tiring of a stale, formulaic genre and a scene that took itself way too seriously. Started in 1981, the Pop-O-Pies were the brain child of New Jersey raised, 'Frisco' transplant Joe Callahan (A.K.A. Joe Pop-O-Pie). And for those who weren't there for the legendary first two years of its existence, the rumor is true, the Pop-O-Pies really did play only one song: "Truckin'". According to Joe the reason was because the band's lineup changed so often, there really wasn't much time to learn anything more. The end result however, was a band tailor made to piss off punks and hippies (or pseudo-radical youth culture) alike. Joe eventually found a competent, and consistent backing band in the form of none other than Faith No More and recorded the now out of print (and master tapes lost forever, sigh) "White EP" on 415 Records. But that, due to its nonexistent nature, is not the subject of this anthology. The bulk of the material here are the complete Joe's Second (also featuring Faith No More) and Joe's Third Records released in 1984 and 1986 on Subterranean Records -- at the height of punk rock's uber-hip, uber-tough, uber-serious "hardcore" era. If there's one thing that self righteous punks needed at that time, it was a good satirical slap in the face and Joe Pop-O-Pie was there to administer it. And administer he did, replete with well played, overindulgent Hendrix-esque guitar parts market tested to irritate the minimalist punk rock purists. To be fair (to the punks and Joe), that isn't all that the Pop-O-Pies satirize. Joe takes on the music industry ("Industrial Rap"), New York City ("I Love New York"), the Beatles ("I Am the Walrus"), bummed out guys ("Bummed-Out-Guy"), morons ("World-O-Morons"), the Grateful Dead ("Truckin' Slow Version" and "Sugar Magnolia") and much more and all throughout peppered with the unique punk rock salt-of-the-earth wisdom of Joe Pop-O-Pie. Not only does this anthology contain the Second and Third Records in their entirety, but also includes four additional tracks: two from Joe's 1993 comeback "The In Frisco Single" released on Amarillo and two previously unreleased tracks from the same recording session (featuring Mr. Bungle alumni Trey Spruance, Danny Heifetz and Dieselhed bassist Atom Ellis). Included with the disc is a three panel fold out featuring historical notes on the Pop-O-Pies, photos new and old and a brief account of an actual conversation overheard by Robert Mailer Anderson. And what's best is that, buying this, you don't have to worry about the artist getting screwed. Yes, that's right, Joe has come out of hiding himself to put this collection together in 100% true D.I.Y. fashion. So every dollar goes to Joe and not some A&R clown in some office building somewhere.
Techno is a genre of self-quotation and unrepentant appropriation, always looking in the rearview mirror at what just happened to predict what will be the hot-shit trend on the dancefloor tomorrow. So to be able to trace an entire strain within techno's taxonomy to a specific record is quite rare. The 1996 album Biokinetics by Porter Ricks is one such record, setting the stage for pretty much every electronic artist who would flock to the banner of Chain Reaction through a stylized hypnotic, narcotizing techno haunted with deep atmospherics, dub murkiness, and subaquatic allusions. Porter Ricks was the duo of Andy Mellwig and Thomas Koner, who pursued "techno as a nautical sound experience." By the time the first Porter Ricks single emerged in '96, Koner had already developed his signature isolationist approach to slow-motion sound-design blustering with arctic metaphors through the dronemuzik classics of Nunatak Gongamur (1990) and Permafrost (1993). So when Koner began exploring techno with Mellwig, the approach to techno was less about 64-bar measures and more about constructing an evolving atmosphere girded to quintessentially German techno engineering that could be taken for a sonic portrait of tidal flows, map coordinates, sonar blips, and the vastness of the deep blue sea.
Biokinetics opens with the magnificent "Port Gentil" whose steady techno pulse coalesces through overlapping patterns from muffled pulsations of white noise and distant locomotive rhythms, later topped by a radiant metallic drone. The somatic oscillations of "Biokinetics 1" hardly makes for a techno track at all despite the insistent rhythms, but the eerie heartpulse dub of "Biokinetics 2" takes an isolationist reproach to everything adding its own desolate pulse and some subterranean reverb. Granulated hiss and slippery drone shimmer blossom through the final tracks "Nautical Nuba" and "Nautical Zone" that look forward to what Wolfgang Voigt would produce on his seminal Gas albums Zauberberg and Konigsforst. It sounded awesome in 1996, and it sounds awesome today.
The vinyl is limited to 700 copies!
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"Symbiotic" is a split release between stalwart bleak technicians Porter Ricks and Techno Animal, in which the tracks of each are presented in alternating fashion. While Porter Ricks has made the best Chain Reaction records for the label, Thomas Koner and Andy Melweg have moved away from the heroin house aethestic for a sound that complements the oppressively dark hip hop futurism of Techno Animal. Surprisingly cohesive for an album that could easily fall apart in lesser hands.
While in New York in 1947 researching surgery that might possibly repair his sight, Cuban tres guitarist Arsenio Rodriguez hooked up with fellow countrymen Chano Pozo (astounding percussionist and songwriter), and Machito (along with his orchestra.) The first
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Recorded between 1950 and 1952 this CD presents Perez Prado and his orchestra in their prime. Prado is credited with popularizing the mambo and fueling an obsession with Cuban music in the US that has lasted to this day. Incredibly tight, punchy arrangements, each punctuated by Prado's trademark guttural yelp - it's no wonder he was so popular then and still is today. Despite his nearly being overplayed and drowned in cocktail culture, he still emerges unmblemished - the James Brown of Cuba. Highly recommended!
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Another great collection of recordings from Perez Prado, these recorded in Mexico between 1949 & 1950 and NYC 1951.
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As far as I know, these are the earliest recordings of Perez Prado's own orchestra (which he formed in 1946) and recorded in Mexico between 1947 and 1949. Unlike his later recordings, which featured less and less vocal parts in favor of the more fashionable instrumentals, there are healthy doses of vocals on this recording from Orlando Guerra (aka: Cascarita), Abel del Rivero, Cecilia Ginzalez and other unknown vocalists.
Archer also plays in Coctails and the Sea & Cake and he draws the comic Sof'Boy. *Beloved* by everyone who works here, this record is excellent solo material -- less precious than the Coctails and way more Bacharach than recent Sea & Cake -- think S&C's first record, mix in some sunny trumpet, a loping, relaxed tempo and meditative, grooving whiteboy vocals. At least 3 extra tracks are included on the 7". Highly recommended!
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Field recordings of hallucinogenic plants. Really, that's quite literally what this is. And though it wouldn't be the type of thing I'd expect hallucinogenic plants to sound like, or what I would choose to listen to while imbibing hallucinogens, it's a great recording. Prime uses the minute voltages of bioelectrical impulses from Cannabis Sativa (pot), Amanita Muscaria (shrooms) and Lophophora Williamsii (peyote) to control battery powered oscillators and then mixes them with the ambient sounds in their locations. The results sound much like a cross between Noto, Stephen McGreevy and Chris Watson. Oddly enough, the sounds of hallucinigenic plants are also quite similar to those of Douglas Quin's Weddell Seals (also on this list) and the two recordings make a fine companion set. And as always, if you have the Sound Of North American Frogs cd, or the Conet Project, then this is for you.
Decent collection of Prince Buster's recordings if you want to get a flavor for his style. Featuring his all time hit "Al Capone" plus many other great tracks, including the scandalously misogynist "Ten Commandments" off Wreck A Pum Pum and a couple of the best tracks off of the Judge Dread album.
Where in Prince Buster holds court as Judge Dread One Hundred Years. Great collection of rock-steady tracks with regular appearances by the judge as he sentences rude boys to 400 years in prison and as many lashes for murder, crying (rude boys are not supposed to cry) and interrupting. All done in Prince Buster's trademark spoken-singing.
Vinyl only re-issue of a rare live recording of Prince Buster from a concert in the UK in 1967. The recording, though not the most hi-fi in audio quality, is quite good and the performance is stunning. According to the MC at the beginning of the show, it was on Prince Buster's birthday that the concert was held and Buster performs with the energy of a birthday boy. Backed up by a full band
Great record, with a cover that looks as though it was pulled out of a thrift store: a bikini clad female pistolero stands in front of a desert mountain, with three cowboys drawing up on horse back in the distance. The colors are all washed out like the album had been printed on newsprint and left in the sun for weeks on end. Musically this album is a keeper as well - tight ska with lots of Prince Buster's patented "hic-up" style vocal accompaniment when there's no singing. Includes his hit Al Capone and 11 other tracks.
Sorry, not available on cd.
If there were ever a hokum rocksteady or ska record, this would be it. 12 tracks about sex and sex. The album opens with the title track -- "Wreck A Pum Pum" -- which is fittingly built around the melody of the x-mas standard "Little Drummer Boy". In this track Prince Buster describes his desire to have a woman, regardles of her looks, to "wreck a pum pum tonight." I might add that this album is not for anyone who may be sensitive to some blatant misogynist songwriting. The second track -- maybe as a consolation to the fairer sex -- is the same song only now sung by two women and directed at the guys. The song itself is actually damn catchy, and the treatment by the women, sung in a shrill duet, is wonderful. The album is actually full of a lot of great songs if you can bear it (the most absurdly brutal tune being Prince Buster's "Ten Commandments" to his woman.)
Prince Far I's first album (1976) finally available again on lp (we also restocked the cd if vinyl is no good for you.) It's basically, as the title implies, the Voice Of Thunder himself toasting the Psalms (using some poetic license of course) in his unique, gruff fashion. Definitely a crucial work.
Finally managed to get more copies of this perennial AQ favorite, but unfortunately, the only distributor we've ever been able to get them from recently went out of business so we may not be able to get them again. So don't miss out! Here's our review from way back:
If you liked "Sounds of North American Frogs" or "Insect Noise In Stored Foodstuffs", or Chris Watson's exotic animal recordings, here's another discovery we recently made in the AQ-beloved field-recordings genre.
In a blind test, it would be impossible to tell these Antarctic animal sounds from the most cutting edge experimental electronica that we sell at Aquarius! And according to the liner notes, the recordings found on this disk received no processing aside from being recorded using a "multi-headed array of hydrophones [underwater microphones]" and then mixed down (for great stereo sound). But some of the recordings, most notably the underwater recordings of Weddell seals, really seem like they could be the first installment of some new modern minimal electronic series, as they would fit in nicely next to the likes of Noto and Pan sonic. The underwater seals track features sweeping squeals like a whale song being sped up and slowed down and mixed with Stephen McGreevy's recordings of electro-magnetic atmospheric phenomena. It's as if the seals are secret knob-twiddlers in an electronic music studio. In other words, you could have a field day getting your "clicks & cuts" lovin' friends to guess who this "new avant-electronica artist" is! Also included on this cd are several recordings from the surface of the Antarctic continent as well: seal mothers and pups, Emperor & Adele penguins, a six minute track of a shattering & creaking glacier, and the brief but beautiful "Wind Harps From The Taylor Valley". This disc became a "AQ-fave recommendation" practically the minute we first heard it!! Maybe we're jaded, and have to listen to penguins frolicking to get our musical kicks, but it just seems so amazing. Wait until you hear it! Incredible and so essential.
Back in November of '99, Radar Brothers' album The Singing Hatchet was our Record of the Week. Didn't think it was possible, but the band has actually gotten even better (to the point of -gasp- converting an AQ staffer or two who didn't like' em before), thus we hereby bestow the same honor on the new record And the Surrounding Mountains. For those of you who're unfamiliar with the LA-based trio of Jim, Senon, and Steve, their sound can be most easily described (and I'm sure they're tired of hearing it) as very similar to Pink Floyd. And not just any ole Pink Floyd, mind you!, but specifically the sad, epic two songs that conclude The Dark Side of the Moon: "Brain Damage" (y'know, "the lunatic is on the grass...") and, god, especially "Eclipse" ("And all that is now/And all that is gone/And all that's to come/And everything under the sun is in tune/But the sun is eclipsed by the moon...") You know how you never want that song to end, it's such a pretty, bittersweet way to close an album? Radar Brothers have made FOUR ALBUMS of that sound all stretched out and atmospheric and personal and warm. The guitars are ever so plaintively strummed so that you hear the chords but also the individual strings, the vocals are hushed and sung usually as a duo, the melodies achingly gorgeous, majestic swells of emotion. They're so great that I find it hard to do anything else while listening to Radar Brothers; like Low and Red House Painters' work, Radar Brothers' songs *demand* stillness and respect -- all your attention. Highly recommended.
The highly anticipated companion album to "Kid A", "Amnesiac" should not disappoint those who picked up last year's release. Many are sure to write this one off as "more of the same" and to be sure, the production quality, as well as the electronica laden
On "Amnesiac" as on "Kid A," Radiohead finds inspiration in electronica, especially the hard-disk crunch of Lesser or Kid 606, and the slippages of melody and rhythm that occur in minimalist techno where there is no bridge, chorus, verse structure, only modulations and transformations of a sequence of leitmotifs. When applying electronica to their pop sensibility, Radiohead do not lace a pre-existing pop song with a slinky house groove; rather they write a pop song as if it were electronica. Thom Yorke's vocals meander through each of the tracks as if some piece of granular synthesis found on Chain Reaction. Which isn't to say that Radiohead are simply jumping on the electronica bandwagon. With "Amnesiac" Radiohead use the studio and its limitless resources to do much more; like emulating an early jazz vocalist like Billy Holiday in "You And Whose Army?", or including a seemingly incongruous New Orleans-esque drunken horn section at the end of the album for "Life In Glass Houses." As always, totally breathtaking.
Radiohead is a band whose mythology has gotten much bigger than they are. The pop giants have steered their fate from being one hit wonders to being the elegant masters of balancing full albums with excess and economy. Like all great artists, Radiohead understands that a key tenet of the artistic process is the necessity of risk-taking. And "Kid A" is an album full of risks. It is also the album that has the unfortunate burden of needing to follow up "OK Computer" -- one of the few records on which a band has managed to perfectly realize all of their intended musical ideas.
The success and failure of the risk taking on "Kid A" is measured by the lack of Radiohead's big melodic hooks which have been replaced by rolling electronica laced grooves, Rhodes organ drone chords, and a generally gorgeous production. Radiohead has wanted to create an album full of exquisite details that are supposed to draw the listener into the record to discover all of the tiny sonic jewels that are so effectively hidden throughout. But without the pop hook, Radiohead hasn't anything else in their repetoire to seduce the listener into the rich production. As a result, the band has made a nice record... one that may inevitably grow on you, but one that is far from genius. With that said, we have to commend Radiohead for their experimental spirit.
Wow! Do NOT (as I did for years) write off this English band as bad alterna-rockers. This is a KILLER album, conceptual in scope, consistent in quality and yet each song has an element that sets it apart from the others. Like JEFF BUCKLEY FRONTING QUEEN (all you who lament not hearing another of Jeff's albums, try this one) with elements of Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, and U2, we kid you not. Highly highly recommended.
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If you love Jackie Mittoo, you'll most certainly love Ernest Ranglin as well. Ernie is the guitar equivalent to Mittoo's laid back keyboard stylings. Impeccably-produced instrumental guitar work, somewhere between Martin Denny style lounge and rock steady. Excellent!
Finally available again, after several years! The disc that both saddens and entertains, kind of like a cross between Charles Bukowski and the Jerky Boys!
If you've seen the Simpsons episode with John Waters, you might recall Homer asking the guest star what camp means. Waters' answer: "The comically tragic...the tragically comic." To which Homer retorts "Oh, you mean, like when a clown dies." This classic recording of San Franciscan drunks Raymond Huffmann & Peter Haskett certainly fits this Homeric definition of camp. These two aging roommates spent their days drinking heavily in their Lower Haight apartment and verbally assaulted each other. The slurring barrage of obscenities muddles the difference between the two men. This is one of those documents that had to be (re)released, capturing the torment these two unwittingly inflicted upon their enraged neighbors who in turn recorded their every conversation. Worthy of its status as a late-twentieth century underground "comedy" phenomenon.
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Dancehall mix, b/w hip hop mix.
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The unanimous AQ staff favorite of the week. Disc one is totally stuck in our cd player...it's only about 20 minutes long, but it may as well be infinite, 'cause we just keep playing it over and over. Appropriate, because, as with much of the late '60s work of American minimalist composer Terry Riley's work, repetition (with subtle changes) is the modus operandi here. The original source song "You're No Good", a pop-latin-boogaloo number released by Harvey Averne in 1968 (he's not credited in the liner notes to this, strangely) is a great tune in its own right. But soon after the original song's release. Terry Riley got his hands on it and created what oughta become one of his all time classic tracks. Riley used pedal-driven tape-loops and the Moog to take the infectious "You're No Good" chorus to extreme, abstract, mesmerizing lengths. It's looped over and under itself, at first sounding completely normal and then imperceptibly gets weirder and weirder until it's so odd that the customers in the store start looking concerned and asking if the cd player is skipping. It stutters wonderfully! Sometimes the left and right channels are playing different parts of the song simultaneously, to eerily beautiful effect.
That the original song is so insanely catchy and hook-filled (it's a "Dancing in the Streets"-style pop number) definitely contributes to the accessibility and fun of the piece. Disco minimalism? Hell yeah. Apparently it was commissioned as theme song for what must have been a very avant-garde Philly dance club, the operator of which was a Terry Riley fan present at the concert documented on disc one... Brilliant.
By the way, the original Averne song can be found on the compilation Dusty Fingers Vol. 2, and we've added a clip of the original below for you to compare.
Disc 2 of this archival set is live material from one of Terry's Poppy Nogood All Night Concerts held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1967. The lovely drones produced by his soprano sax and "time-lag accumulator" must have kept the attendees happy and hypnotized in their sleeping bags 'til dawn, and now we can experience a cd's worth of it now at whatever time of day or night we choose. Nice.
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Arsenio Rodriguez is one of the masters of the Tres Guitar - a guitar originating from a three string guitar of African Congolese origin. Completely blind since the age of six, Rodriguez started learning to play guitar in his teens. It was during a trip to New York in 1947 in an attempt to restore his sight that he had the opportunity to play with Machito's orchestra. He decided to return to New York in 1953 and while there, started his own group. These recordings were made that year and feature vocals by Rene Scull (who has a vibrato technique all his own) and Candido Antomattei. The size of the ensemble, though small, still has the energy and swing of a much bigger group.
Another great collection of recordings by Cuban tres guitarist Arsenio Rodriguez. "Dundunbanza", the title track of this collection is significant because it is a traditional Congolese song which Rodriguez - a Cuban of Congolese descent - adapted to his conjunto. Arsenio was the first Cuban musician to incorporate the conga into his group; a move that was quite controversial at
